Name: When fever dreams with sexually ambiguous flowers are the peak there's only one way to go
Item: Against the grain
Author: cauldronofmorning

When fever dreams with sexually ambiguous flowers are the peak there's only one way to go

cauldronofmorning

Sep 06, 2024

Ok, so -- to start actually posting and documenting my reading experiences here, I'll start with this one, which I've just finished.

This book had everything going on for it -- decadence, inventory-like prose that goes on and on about insanely specific things & so on. I love all of that, and I love the idea of À Rebours, but it just became so... tiring...

After the mid-section, and a few BRILLIANT chapters (such as the 8th & the 11th), Des Esseintes' aristocratic malaise just became boring. What was once exciting and interesting became increasingly solipsistic and dull. It began with so, so much steam and glimmer and beautiful decadent descriptions, but ended up making me dread each new page I had to turn.

Highly recommend Paglia's take on it from Sexual Personae.

Overall, and very generally, I liked it. Just wasn't amazed as I expected to be.

Y A+2

6 comments

⌘ Enter to post

gratefulkent1 year ago

I like the part about the jewel encrusted turtle

cauldronofmorning1 year ago

It's a true highlight, and very telling that it's one of his first excursions into crazy ass aestheticism

yarb1 year ago

Unbelievably solipsistic and dull imo. To the extent that if someone gets excited about this book, that's a major red flag for me.

cauldronofmorning1 year ago

Honestly yes!!! I got slightly disappointed, since I've been hearing great things about it for so, so long.

lowiqmarkfisher1 year ago

Same, I remember reading it around a year ago and dreading reading it, and I just stopped reading it after around 50-60% of the book. So fucking drab.

cauldronofmorning1 year ago

I had to power through it :P